submit a research essay analysing the leadership traits and approaches of richard branson

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The Leadership Traits and Approaches of Richard Branson
Leadership is termed as the ability of an individual or a group of persons who can pool people together and driving them towards a common destiny or objective. Good leaders are perceived to be committed, honest, confident, effective communicators, creative, positive minded and are always inspiring. Richard Branson is viewed as a good leader because he poses the qualities that make a respected leader and he is very successful at what he does. Richard Branson’s story is not all about success because he faced challenges in his academics, but that did not stop him from succeeding. A big number of people believe that the Virgin Group founder is a great leader (Butler-Bowdon 45). From a survey conducted Richard Branson tops with thirty-five percent of the people interviewed supporting him as a great leader and investor.
Leaders have unique traits that make them stand out from the other people. Everyone can be a leader but what makes one person a successful leader than the others is what that individual is made of, and there are several theories to explain leadership. The traits theory claims that good leaders share unique features such as being honest or even being creative that come from the mind and can be represented physically (Branson 13). Another argument is the behavioral theory that influences the results leaders to achieve. The third model is the contingency theory where it is argued that every situation has a different outcome, and the results depend on how each handles the circumstances.

The last argument about leadership is on influence and power; every leader has the authority, and the results depend on how well a leader uses their control over the juniors.
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, was born in July 1950 in the United Kingdom. He started venturing into the business while he was a teenager and from the little he had he is now a billionaire. For someone who had poor grades in school, it is amazing to see how determination has made him stand out as a successful leader and investor. Richard Branson started off with a magazine, but now the Virgin Group comprises of over one hundred companies that range from entertainment to transport. The Virgin Group is on a global scale and has created job opportunities for over sixty thousand individuals. Richard is a great entrepreneur who follows his dreams, and he also advocates for the protection of the ecosystem and working to bring about positive changes in communities especially by supporting the young individuals. Richard Branson has dreams and most of his investments arise from them and from his desire to emerge successfully. One of his great dreams is to visit the moon that has made him register a company that will be taking people to space.
Richard Branson has traits that make him stand out a great leader hence a successful investor. One his quality is creativity, to be a founder of such a large number of companies he can create new ideas and improve the existing ones to make them better. Being creative has enabled Richard Branson to source employees who are talented, and that boost the performance of his enterprises. Great leaders have personalities that stand out, and that is what has enabled him to succeed because his employees believe in his style of effort and having fun while working. Delegation is another quality that that makes the Virgin founder to stand out; he can assign duties to his juniors and get positive results. Richard Branson gives his employees chances to try out and, therefore, boosting their morale. Branson stands out because of his characters and, therefore, the traits model explains his abilities. To be a great leader, you should be an individual of high profile

From the above graph thirty-five percent of the people represented by the bar graph labelled 1 said that Richard Branson is a great leader hence his success as an entrepreneur. According to the survey, Richard Branson was voted as the most successful leader compared to other individuals such as the Facebook owner or even the Microsoft founder. However, the youth viewed Michael Zuckerberg as more successful than the Virgin Group founder. From the analysis of the study, Richard Branson was the overall winner for his leadership skills, creativity and the fact that he has performed way above his poor academic performance to be a billionaire and also creating many job opportunities.
From the above discussion it is seen that success is not all about academics but what you believe in. Good leaders believe in others, and they will always give their subordinates a chance to bring results. Creativity coupled with integrity make the best leaders. Richard Branson has been creative and through hard work and effort he has managed to create the Virgin Group that has an original group of employees. The Virgin Group has roots in over fifty countries around the world, and its success can only be attributed to one great leader and investor, Richard Branson. The following link has access to the surveys on Richard Branson https://claritygo.com/blog/richard-branson-is-still-most-admired-entrepreneur-in-uk-b84.

Works Cited
Branson, Richard. The Virgin Way. N.p., 2014. Print.
Butler-Bowdon, Tom. 50 Prosperity Classics: Attract It, Create It, Manage It, Share It ; Wisdom from the Best Books on Wealth Creation and Abundance. London: Nicholas Brealey Pub, 2008. Print.
Grant, Robert M. “Richard Branson and the Virgin Group of Companies in 2004.” (0): Print.
Prudham, Scott. “Pimping Climate Change: Richard Branson, Global Warming, and the Performance of Green Capitalism.” Environment and Planning A (2009): n. pag. Print.
“Richard Branson: How to Be a Real Leader.” Virgin.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.